Monday, October 15, 2012

Elizabeth Cattlett Mora Memorial in New Orleans




Francisco Mora Catlett sent us this picture of people gathered in New Orleans for the memorial service in honor of his mother and our Queen Mother, revolutionary artist Elizabeth Cattlett Mora. She gave us refuge during our second exile in Mexico City, 1970. Above the crowd that includes Sonia Sanchez, is the statute of Louis Armstrong created by ancestor Queen Mother Elizebath Cattlett Mora. Long live Betty Mora!--Marvin X

WBAI Special: Dr. Cornel West on Poverty in America


Check out the discussion 'On WBAI 99.5 FM, Building Bridges: Special with Dr. Cornel West on Poverty In America, Oct. 15, 7-10p EST'

Discussion posted by SendMeYourNews:

Building Bridges: Your Community & Labor Report  with Mimi Rosenberg & Ken NashMonday, Oct. 15, 2012, 7 - 10 pm EST over WBAI Radio...

Discussion link:
On WBAI 99.5 FM, Building Bridges: Special with Dr. Cornel West on Poverty In America, Oct. 15, 7-10p EST

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Will the Real Terrorists Stand Up?

With each passing day in the global village we see that the real terrorists  have always been America and her white supremacy allies in the scramble for world domination, especially in the economic sphere, but in the cultural sphere as well, e.g., the spread of Christianity across the planet.

Religion in general and Christianity in particular is indeed the opiate of the people, a drug more devastating than all other drugs combined, including heroin, Crack, meth, ecstasy, weed, alcohol, etc. The white supremacy version of Christianity allows the survival of the apartheid state of Israel. Is Israel nothing but the modern version of the Christian Crusader occupation of the Holy Land?

But thank God after one hundred years the Christian Crusaders were forced to depart the Holy Land, so let us not worry about the Zionists occupiers, they shall be gone one day for sure, no matter how many Nukes they possess. Hezbollah has shown us the Zionists are not the Supermen they pretend to be. What did the Viet Cong teach us, "The spirit of the people is greater than the enemies technology."

South African revolutionary and Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela pointed out that America is the number one peace breaker in the world. How can one be about peace yet they are the number one arms merchant of the world and the US military budget is nearly a trillion dollars per annum? The Chinese defense budget is about 200 billion. No one can match the mighty beast, the great whore Babylon!

The supreme irony is not that America is the world's greatest terrorist, but that it is in cahoots with those they describe as terrorists. Did not America give birth to Al Queida? Did she not support Muslim extremists in Afghanistan in their war against the USSR? Yes,  then she momentarily abandoned the Jihadists but of late has covertly supported them in Libya and most recently is supplying them to unseat the brutal regime in Syria.

America essentially cherry picks her so called enemies, kills them one day, supports them another day. Know for sure, America is supporting terrorists in Iraq in collaboration with the Sunni states such as Saudi Arabia and the Gulf nations, and please do not leave out the Zionists in this conspiracy. The Sunni regimes are in cahoots with Israel as much as America, otherwise, the Palestinians would have had their state long ago. Turning off the oil spigot would liberate the Palestinians overnight. A free Palestine would be an entity tomorrow morning as much as the Zionist entity is a reality today.

Iraq will never have a stabilized government as long as the Shia are in power because the regional Sunni regimes do not consider them real Muslims but shirk who must be deposed, opposed and in the final solution, slaughtered outright.

The Sunni Muslims in America have the same notion about Nation of Islam Muslims. In the final analysis, NOI Muslims are expendable, after all, they are not real Muslims according to orthodox Muslim poppy cop.

Even so called followers of Malcolm X fall into this sectarian dogmatism that only leads to disunity in the North American African nation. Black intellectuals are pervasive in their warped analysis of our history, especially when they fall into the chasm of revisionism, lecturing on black history but jumping from Marcus Garvey to Malcolm X, deleting the Honorable Elijah Muhammad from their narrative because of emotional myopia, too emotional to understand that shit happens in revolutions, even the so- called Negro Revolution, that was not all peaches and cream, there was betrayal, opportunists, snitches, spies, agent provocateurs, in short, ours was a normal revolution with the classical contradictions, yet we are so sophisticated we  are stupefied by the process  and thus  miss the classic historical process,  thus it is questionable when we shall achieve the final product called freedom and independence due to our psycholinguistic crisis.

Of course, the final question is shall we go down with the Titanic or swim ashore. We have been told those who worship the Beast go down with the Beast. Our fate is in our hands, follow Allah, He shall set you free! And who is Allah? You! Mama told me, "Use the mind God gave you, Boy!" Yes, follow your mind for you are in God and God is in you!


--Dr. M, aka Marvin X

A Peek into the Psyche of Dr. M/Marvin X

ChickenBones: A Journal
for  Literary & Artistic African-American  Themes

Home  ChickenBones Store (Books, DVDs, Music, and more)  
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Dr. M, aka Marvin X is currently on the east coast promoting his latest book









The Wisdom of Plato Negro




Parables and Fables


Books by Marvin X
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Marvin X Offers A Healing Peek Into His Psyche



By 
 Junious Ricardo Stanton

Rarely is a brother secure and honest enough with himself to reveal his innermost thoughts, emotions or his most hellacious life experiences. For most men it would be a monumental feat just to share/bare his soul with his closest friends but to do so to perfect strangers would be unthinkable, unless he had gone through the fires of life and emerged free of the dross that tarnishes his soul. Marvin X, poet, playwright, author and essayist does just that in a self-published book entitled In the Crazy House Called America
This latest piece from Marvin X offers a peek into his soul and his psyche. He lets the reader know he is hip to the rabid oppression the West heaps upon people of color especially North American Africans while at the same time revealing the knowledge gleaned from his days as a student radical,  black nationalist revolutionary forger of the Black Arts Movement, husband, father lover, a dogger of women did not spare him the degradation and agony of descending into the abyss of crack addiction, abusive and toxic relationships and family tragedy.  
Perhaps because of the knowledge gained as a member of the Nation of Islam, and his experiences as one of the prime movers of the cultural revolution of the '60, the insights he shares In the Crazy House Called America are all the keener. Marvin writes candidly of his pain, bewilderment and depression of losing his son to suicide. He shares in a very powerful way, his own out of body helplessness as he wallowed in the dregs of an addiction that threatened to destroy his soul and the mess his addictions made of his life and relationships with those he loved. 
But he is not preachy and this is not an autobiography. He has already been there and done that. In sharing his story and the wisdom he has gleaned from his life experiences and looking at the world through the eyes of an artist/healer, Marvin X serves as a modern day shaman/juju man who in order to heal himself and his people ventures into the spirit realm to confront the soul devouring demons and mind pulverizing dragons; he is temporarily possessed by them, heroically struggles to rebuke their power before they destroy him; which enables him to return to this realm, tell us what it is like, prove redemption is possible, thereby empowering himself/ us and helping to heal us. He touches on a myriad of topics as he raps and writes about himself and current events. 
Reading this book  you know he knows what it is like to come face to face with and do battle with the insanity and death this society has in store for all Africans.   Marvin X talks about his sexual relations/dysfunction, drugs, media and free speech, sports, black political power or the lack thereof, the war on drugs and the current War on Terrorism, nothing is off limits. He includes reviews of music, theater as well as film, but not as some smarter/ holier than thou, elitist observer. 
Marvin X writes as one actively engaged in life, including its pain and suffering. He lets us know he was a willing and active participant in his addiction, how it impacted his decision making, his role as a parent, his male-female "relationships", his ability to be creative within a movement to liberate African people and the world from the corruption of Caucasian hegemony. 
Marvin X is in recovery and it has not been easy for him. As a writer/healer he still has the voice of a revolutionary poet/playwright, it is a voice we need to listen and pay attention to. He has survived his own purgatory and emerged stronger and more committed to life and saving his people.  As North American Africans (his term to differentiate us from our continental and diasporic brethren) he sees the toll the insanity of this culture takes on us. His culturally induced self-destructive lifestyle choices and the death of his son is a testament to how life threatening and lethal this society can be. 
But Marvin X also talks about spiritual redemption, the ability to transcend even the most horrific experiences with resiliency and determination so that one gets a glimpse of  one's own  divine potential. This book is an easy read which makes it all the more profound.In The Crazy House Called America is for brothers especially. It is a book all black men should grab hold of and digest, if for no other reason than to experience just how redemptively healing and liberating being honest can be.
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Marvin X's latest book is The Wisdom of Plato Negro, parables/fables, Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA 94702. Send $19.95, plus $5.00 for postage and handling.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

APPEAL FROM NATIONAL BLACK ARTS FESTIVAL


NBAF logo
October 13, 2012
Dear Marvin X,
With your help NBAF has presented more than 1,000 artists to more than 2 million people since 1987. Please donate now to support new artistic and educational programming and the 2013 celebration of our 25th Anniversary!

25 of the artists who have appeared at the National Black Arts Festival over the last 25 years.  

Alvin AileyDanny Glover
Benny AndrewsJudith Jamison
Maya AngelouBill T. Jones
Harry BelafonteAngelique Kidjo
Avery BrooksGordon Parks
Elizabeth CatlettSpike Lee
Pearl CleageWynton Marsalis
Ossie DavisHugh Masekela
Ruby DeePhylicia Rashad
David DriskellSonia Sanchez
Charles DuttonGlen Turman
Roberta FlackCicely Tyson
Marvin X
Nikki Giovanni 

Make your donations before December 31, and take advantage of the tax benefits. Your tax-deductible donations will support NBAF and the work of artists, educators, scholars and arts advocates in preserving and extending the important cultural legacy that African Americans and the African Diaspora have given to this country and the world.
  
Thank you for supporting NBAF!
Michael Simanga, PhD   
Dr. Michael Simanga
NBAF Executive Director
  
  

Parable of Fallujah




Parable of Fallujah

A former US soldier who fought in the Battle of Fallujah, Iraq, told Plato Negro he and his buddies kicked in 400 doors in Fallujah. He said they became professional home invaders. Once inside, they were able to discover a weapons cache in 90 seconds, whether hidden in the living room, bedroom, kitchen, attic , under the floor, etc.


They separated men from women then searched and seized anything of value, money, jewelery, whatever.

After awhile, the soldier said he no longer dodged bullets. He accepted his fate for he knew he deserved death or whatever. He was wounded several times, once by an IUD, a stabbing, bullets. He showed Plato Negro is wounds.

He said it is very difficult if not impossible to defeat a people who do not fear death, who relish death like a thirsty man craves water. He mocked the insurgents who desire to die for virgins in the sky!

His remarks reminded Plato Negro of another former soldier who also said after a time he did not bother to stay on his post at night because he knew he deserved death, so he went to sleep.

A Special Forces veteran told Plato Negro America deserved 9/11 for the crimes she had him doing around the world, mainly murdering in cold blood and other despicable actions. He loves Plato Negro but says he cannot read but twenty pages of his writings at a time because it inflames him and makes him again want to kill, this time the real enemy!

As per Fallujah, Plato Negro is aware the town is suffering an epidemic of birth defects in newborn children, supposedly from depleted uranium used in bullets, shells and bombs. The birth defect rate is higher than in Japan after the US dropped the atomic bomb in WWII.

In Fallujah, babies are born with no arms, no legs, no head, two heads, etc. The town was brought to its knees after being one of the most radical centers of Sunni resistance to the US occupation. It had to be broken--and it was!

The veteran who was a master home invader is now working security at an after hours club in Oakland. He appreciated Plato's book Pull Yo Pants Up fada Black Prez and Yoself. The brother said it is ironic Plato's classroom is at 14th and Broadway and his after hours club is two blocks away at 14th and Webster, but he does not allow youth in his club wearing sagging pants. He encouraged Plato Negro to attend the after hours to distribute his literature.

At the club, the brother is as armed as he was in Iraq, body armor, tasser and side arm. The women must be searched as well since the men hide their weapons with the women. He said the brothers and sisters don't understand he is not going to take any b.s. from them, especially after facing death angels in Iraq. And even though he is only 5'8'' or 9'', no one is going to push him aside and enter the club. He presses 400lbs. One night a tall, drunk brother tried to go pass him but it didn't happen. The brother departed but returned to apologize to the man who had faced death angels on the streets of Fallujah!
--Marvin X
8/2/10

Dr. M, aka Marvin X will be in the New York area next week. He may read at the high school in New Jersey made famous in the movie Lean on Me. Maybe you will be able to catch him at Revolution Books or some other venue. 

Dr. M Interviews Oba of North American African Yorubas

In a wide ranging interview at the King's palace, Dr. M asked the king numerous questions about the Yoruba faith. The king gave a historical foundation of the Yoruba people, claiming they originated from ancient Kemet or Egypt and that the foundation of their religion is the Egyptian Mystery System. He noted that Cheikh Anta Diop has made linguistic comparisons of the Yoruba language and that of ancient Kemet. There is no doubt in my mind that we descended from the land known as Egypt.

Indeed, ancestor Sun Ra taught Dr. M that we are the latter day Egyptian revisionists. When we restore our African consciousness, the Oba said we are in harmony with our ancestors, especially in belief and worship. He compared the pantheon of Kemetic gods with the Yoruba pantheon. All religions and culture come out of Africa, Yoruba, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, even Hinduism, the Oba said. 

After the transition of his father, His Royal Majesty Oba Oseijeman Adefunmi, who founded Oyotunji African Village after years in Harlem, NY, the new Oba was crowned in Nigeria.  Dr. M told the Oba that he remembered seeing his father on the streets of Harlem during 1968. "He was a flamboyant figure, he and his entourage with their flowing robes and dashikis." The Oba said it was his father who almost singlehandedly brought African culture to the North American African. "In Harlem, my father would give out African clothing for free to make a paradigm shift in North American African cultural consciousness, after all, we were suffering a severe form of amnesia."

As a prince who was born in Oyotunji African Village, the Oba had no special privileges. He endured manhood training as all men must do in their rites of passage. He walked the forty miles to and from the village to the City of Beaufort. He stayed in the woods at night and built a house without nails. He learned the craft of construction and other skills that all young men must achieve in manhood training. "Now everyone does not make it through manhood training. Some brothers fall apart, crack up. But usually when they get support from the brotherhood, they complete the course. And it is the same for women. They learn their duties and skills necessary for womanhood, how to be wives and mothers. We are a matrilineal society, not a patriarchy, so women play a major role in our culture, they are priests as well as men. Since we come from the womb of women, they are highly sacred to us. They have power in our kingdom. If they come to me with a problem, I better listen to them and listen good or there will be hell to pay on my part!"

The complete interview will be available on Youtube.com and this blog ASAP.
--Dr. M
10/12/2012

With this interview, Dr. M completes his mission in Gullahland SC and departs for New York City. He forever thanks his friend and host, Hurriyah Asar, for her love, friendship,  generosity and hospitality. 



The Oba planting a tree.

The Oba and Priest


The founder of Oyotunji African Village

The founding Oba during a sacred ceremony
Shango

The Oba and visitors


We ate dinner at the Queen Mother's (in white) residence
after our interview. On our next visit, we agreed to
interview the Queen Mother.